Help offered High Park fire victims through Craigslist

People in need connected with people who help

By Tom Hacker Reporter-Herald Staff Writer

Posted:
06/18/2012 06:28:25 PM MDT

High Park fire evacuee Luke Schatz, center, gets encouragement from his cousin-in-law, Dan Wing, left, as he talks with neighbor Dave Cantor, right, Monday at The Ranch in Loveland. Schatz and Cantor both lost their homes in the fire. Schatz is one of many folks posting on Craigslist asking for or offering help after the fire.
(
Jenny Sparks
)

Nothing has expanded the scope of the word "community" quite like the Internet.

So it is with the High Park fire, the most destructive in Colorado's history, and ... Craigslist.

The wildly popular online classified ad service, free for most users, has become a clearinghouse that links victims of the 58,046-acre High Park fire to people who feel compelled to do something -- anything -- to help them.

"I've got the space, and I wanted to do something for these people," said Johnstown resident Karla Humphrey, whose comfortable home has a full basement and bath, suitable for a couple or small family, and their pets.

Her post was brief but specific: High Park fire victims only.

No one has taken Humphrey up on her offer yet. "I've been playing phone tag with a woman, an evacuee," she said. But her standing offer is among scores that have been posted on Craigslist since June 9, when the fire raced eastward from a lightning-struck tree near Stove Prairie.

Along with the spirit of community that natural disasters engender comes an element of trust.

"I've talked to friends about it, and they're worried I might wind up with some squatter who may or may not be a fire victim, and who winds up staying forever," Humphrey said.

"But, then, it could be vice versa. How would someone know I'm not some sort of ax murderer?"

A Man, A Truck

Dan Boulliez of Loveland has what more than 200 residents of hard-hit Rist Canyon and adjacent areas no longer have: A home, and everything that goes with it.

On June 9, when the fire started flashing through canyon funnels and spilling across ridge tops, he posted a Craigslist ad offering himself, his Ford F-350 truck and a trailer for anyone who needed them.

"I got a call on the same day it posted from a 20-year-old girl who was looking for hay for her horses," Boulliez said.

By the time Boulliez responded, his beneficiary had found the hay but had no one to transport it. It was in Casper, Wyo.

Boulliez started his 360-mile round trip to Casper, where he loaded 85 bales of hay. At 4:30 a.m. on June 10 he arrived at The Ranch in Loveland, where the horses were bunked up in the fairgrounds' livestock pavilions, an evacuation center for the four-legged.

Chipping In

His Craigslist ad still drew responses, even after his good deed was done.

"I got several calls from others who wanted to chip in," he said. "They wanted to help me."

During the past weekend, garage sale ads that make up much of the Craigslist menu on Saturdays and Sundays all seemed to have High Park hooks:

Taking a break from volunteering to help evacuees from the High Park fire, Jake Geist, sits under the shade of an umbrella in the heat Monday at The Ranch. Geist volunteers for Colorado Friendship, an organization offering clothing and other items to evacuees. (Jenny Sparks)

"My daughter will be selling lemonade and cookies, with all proceeds going to the fire victims," one said.

"All merchandise free for victims of the High Park fire," said another.

Two ads last week sought used building materials -- metal roofing, timbers and ... used telephone poles.

"I tried to imagine what some of these people might need," said Craigslist advertiser Chris Andrews of Fort Collins. "I've got some property, with a large lot, and could build a place for someone to store things, like an RV or whatever. I just know that there's going to be a need, and I want to do something."

'It Wasn't Much'

Under a headline reading "Wanted -- Trailer -- $500" was one of the most poignant of the Craigslist postings. It went up Friday, the day that Luke Schatz learned officially that his most-modest of homes in the Whale Rock subdivision of Rist Canyon was gone.

"Evacuee needs a trailer to live in while re-establishing property on Whale Rock Road," Schatz wrote. "Nothing remains and I don't need anything special. Please email or call. Thank you."

Schatz's neighborhood was among the hardest-hit and hottest-burning of the areas scoured by High Park. Of 54 Whale Rock homes, just 14 remain standing, many of them heavily damaged.

"It wasn't much," Schatz said. "It was an old trailer, but it was where I hung my hat."

Schatz, for the moment, is living in an abandoned building at the long-closed Fort Collins Downtown Airpark until he can find something more stable.

"I've always tried to help people in my life," he said. "But now, when somebody gives me a gift card, it about brings me to my knees. I have to say hats-off to this community. I want to find a way to say, 'Citizens, my name is Luke Schatz. I want to thank all of you. Each and every one of you, for all you've done for us.'"

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